Judging by the scant media references to the game,I don't think anyone cared. It was up against the Sir Doug round and for publicity it was on a hiding to nothing. A bit of thought required on which weekend to hold interstate games

Agree Blackrocker. Very little media coverage and it's another game that Victoria has lost again. No way the SANFL should be aiming year after year.

We should probably look at giving these state games away until we are competitive in them. As one who lives the big V, I really think the preparation to these games needs to be looked at.

Try treating it like an Academy squad where players after Round 2 are incited down to weekly training session with an independent coach. The squad might vary a little in week to week, but they should be switched on with a game plan and style of play they are well familiar with.

I just don't think the game is taken seriously enough in this state. How many training sessions did the squad have prior to going over there? Anyway...

Here's an article from Michaelangelo Rucci from the Adelaide Advertiser...

—--------
Giving it their all ... South Australia's James Boyd attacks the ball under the pump from Victoria's Leigh Masters at Adelaide Oval. Picture: Tom Huntley
IT needs to be said. The SANFL’s win against the VFL at the weekend maintains SA’s reputation as the best football competition outside the AFL.

But what does this mean in 2016?

As SANFL president John Olsen presented SA coach Graham Cornes and captain Zane Kirkwood the match trophy at Adelaide Oval on Sunday evening - with some barbs to Olsen echoing from the northern mound - other more-meaningful questions were being asked.

And plans were starting to take shape for the SANFL-VFL clash to be an annual event.

The first question is based on the 4319 at the Oval on Sunday.

How does the SANFL draw more fans to a match that - until the AFL became the name of the game - was second only to the grand final as the highlight of the local football calendar?

Why should the SANFL diehards - including those SANFL club members who had free entry on Sunday - be charged AFL rates for tickets to a state game?

If the SANFL wants big crowds to state matches it needs the league’s best players in the state team. It needs the fans to be lured to the gates by the promise of seeing the best.

At least two SANFL stars - one who could wear the Magarey Medal at season’s end - passed up state selection to “rest” at the weekend. This is unforgivable.

The SA Football Commission should offer even more opportunity for rest by banning these players from at least one club game in the state league.

Putting club before state brought an end to Origin football in the 1990s.

It will do the same to these state games, particularly when SANFL clubs start to lean on their star players to maintain a competitive advantage for the premiership race.

For the AFL-Victoria representatives at the Oval on Sunday evening to quickly put forward the concept of an annual SANFL-VFL clash highlights the belief in the administrative corridors that the state leagues should offer state jumpers to their best players.

The SA Football Commission’s guardians of the SANFL were even quicker to accept the invitation - and to acknowledge the importance of offering such a game to its state league players.

But what if the SANFL’s best players - as noted this time - do not want such honour?

And what happens when the fans turn away?

An old chestnut is guaranteed today as Australian football fans admire how rugby league can make representative games work with the annual NSW-Queensland State-of-Origin clashes ... but the AFL and perhaps soon the SANFL and VFL cannot draw its best players away from club football.

Rugby league has Australian jumpers on the line - and a super event that has even New Zealand bidding for an Origin game.

The AFL gave up on Origin in 1999. The SANFL and VFL’s administrators are holding the dream, but if the players do not share the passion then State games are doomed as well. Sad.

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